James Neill
James Robert Neill (March 18, 1840-November 1, 1924) is a fictional Confederate Civil War general created by Joshua Underwood; while not a Star Trek character per se, he is considered the ancestor of the Neills of his Star Trek stories, including Daniel and his sons, Ethan and Jeremiah. Age Change and Historical License Originally, James Neill was indended to be a tad older; in fact, his original portrayal was by the late Richard Jordan, who portrayed Brigadier General Lewis A. Armistead in the film Gettysburg (based on Michael Shaara's The Killer Angels). This was changed sometime afterwards so that the character could (at the very least) be possibly portrayed by Underwood himself, which may lead to additions (in fictional history, of course) that General Neill may be an Underwood ancestor, or perhaps actually be Underwood himself (mucking around with the timeline, perhaps). Underwood is a Civil War enthusiast, but often says he never has the money to participate in any re-enactment or historical societies, nor does he live close enough to one. Like Colonel Thaddius Riker of the 102nd New York, Neill replaces actual historical figures. The commander of the Fourth Virginia Regiment at Chancellorsville was Major - later Brigadier General - William Terry (who was the last commander of the Stonewall Brigade, which remains the same in Neill's story), the 49th Virginia was commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan C. Gibson at Chancellorsville and Gettysburg, and the brigade he commanded during the Valley Campaign of 1864 was actually commanded by Colonel Robert H. Dungan. Biography James Robert Neill was born in Alexandria, Virginia, to a little-known but prosperous family. His father, William Jeremiah Neill, also served the Confederacy as a general who was killed at the Battle of Antietam (Sharpsburg) in 1862. James was the eldest of six children in the Neill house, and thus much was expected of him. In 1855, the family moved to Lexington when his father accepted a teaching position at the Virginia Military Institute. The Civil War Neill attended VMI himself from 1858 until the outbreak of war in 1861, in which he joined the troops assembled by Professor Thomas Jackson, a man he often joked about with his friends for his awkward lectures and big feet; he would later learn to respect the man as he became the legend known throughout America as "Stonewall". Fighting as an enlisted man in the Fourth Virginia - part of the famous "Stonewall Brigade" formed by Jackson - his commander recommended him for an officers' commission after the First Battle of Bull Run (First Manassas) for quick thinking under fire, and General Jackson approved. He would rise quickly after that, and was the second-in-command of the Fourth Virginia during Second Bull Run (Second Manassas), Antietam (Sharpsburg) and Fredericksburg - though he had to take a temporary leave of absense to manage his father's estate when William, a brigade commander in Longstreet's corps, was killed at Sharpsburg. Neill was transferred to command the 49th Virginia in Early's division of Jackson's Second Corps - just in time for the Battle of Chancellorsville in May 1863. He lost his left leg to amputation, when his kneecap was shattered by a lucky shot during a scrap with the Army of the Potomac's Sixth Corps on May 4. He recovered enough to return to his regiment in time for the fight at Gettysburg less than two months later. He was eventually promoted to Brigadier General after the Battle of Cold Harbor in June 1864, and received a brigade of consolidated Virginia regiments in Major General John Gordon's division. He accompanied the corps of General Jubal Anderson Early in his campaigns in the Shenandoah until the Battle of Cedar Creek, after which Gordon's division - of which Neill was a part - returned to the main body of General Lee's Army of Northern Virginia in time for the siege of Petersburg. At the Battle of Five Forks, on April 1, 1865, Neill was wounded three times by men of Brigadier General Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain's brigade, and taken prisoner. He languished in a Union field hospital when General Lee surrendered, and - though still feeling the effects of his wounds - was allowed to rejoin General Gordon during the official surrender ceremony. He found it ironic that General Chamberlain, who led the brigade that had captured him, was the one to receive the official surrender. Postbellum Like General Early, with whom he had achieved something of a rapport due to similar temperments (both were considered tempermental and vulgar men), Neill was a firm believer in the so-called "Lost Cause". After Early died in 1894, however, his views softened a bit and eagerly supported reconsiliation. In 1870, he married into the Surette family - direct maternal ancestors of Joshua Underwood - and had four children. In 1901, Neill and his family moved to California and set up in the mining town of Calico in the Mojave Desert. When Calico was abandoned in 1907, he settled in nearby Barstow. He died there in 1924 at the age of 84. At his request, he was buried in the graveyard outside the now-abandoned town of Calico. After Walter Knott bought the town in 1951 and restored it for future generations, General Neill's body was exhumed at the request of the family and reburied in Barstow. He was later exhumed again in 1976 and reburied at the national cemetery in Riverside, California, where he was later joined by his wife, Jeanette Marie Surette-Neill, and his eldest son, William Jeremiah Neill II. One of his direct descendants, Starfleet Admiral Daniel Neill, is also buried next to him. General Neill is the only officer of the Confederacy to be buried at Riverside. Neill, James